Halong Bay, Vietnam

A virtual tour of halong bay during our 2-day cruise in Hanoi, Vietnam. Halong bay was voted as one of “The New 7 Natural Wonders of the World” and a UNESCO Heritage Site. Halong bay means “The Descending Dragon”. This a view from the top of the famous Titov island. It’s a 20-minute hike to reach this point and even though there are steps provided it’s quite steep. This island is also one of the designated beach where tourist can swim.

The ships usually drop the passengers to this island but we had a fun & exciting way to get here. There is a kayaking facility nearby so the tour guide brought us there and it’s just a big floating raft with small shelters where they store the kayaks. So we kayak to & from the island on an open sea which is a wonderful experience.

If you can notice, all the ships are now painted white which is a big disappointment for me because I was expecting to see the traditional old brown colored ships with red sails. The change of color was ordered by the government after the tragic accident on the night of February 2011 where a tour boat sank killing 12 people and the rescue team had a hard time searching for the boat because of its dark color paint.

See the exact location of this virtual tour below. Also included is the geo trail of our whole trip shown in red line.